Auswirkungen der steigenden Lebenserwartung auf die Gesundheitsausgaben

In the literature there are controversial discussions about the influence of the increasing live expectancy on the expenditure for health care. In the first part of this paper, I analyse the adaptability of the hypotheses of compression or extension of morbidity on the health care expenditure. On a theoretic basis, I transfer the hypotheses from the level of physical life quality to the level of monetary spending. I define a monetary version of the compression of morbidity hypothesis and of the expansion of morbidity hypothesis (the so called monetary medicalisation). In a further definition the influence of inflation is included. In the second part of the paper, I verify the hypotheses based on data from a large German private insurance company. The data include average health care expenditure per capita in the ambulant and stationary sectors for each age and gender. The availability of ten years of data allows the identification of a trend in the expenditure under increased life expectancy. As the spending shows a growth for each age and sex an ?inflation adjusted monetary medicalisation“ can be stated.